East Austin Fire: one dead, one critically burned

A man is dead after an East Austin house fire. His mother made it out alive but is in critical condition.

A bystander captured this video of the flame engulfed home on Ulit Avenue.

“It's really shocking I mean we haven't had a fire here in a while now,” Ernestine Jackson, neighbor, said.

Firefighters say a quadriplegic man around 30-years-old died in the afternoon fire. When authorities got to the house just before 1:00 p.m, they found his mother, alive, but severely burned in the yard.

Neighbor, Ernestine Jackson says she didn't think the popping noises she heard were the result of a fire.

“I thought they were gunshots that what it sounded like. Then I came out of the kitchen and I looked out the front door and I saw people standing in the street so I ran up and saw the house was burning,” she said.

The man's mother was first taken to UMC Brackenridge, but later flown to the San Antonio Military Medical Center's Burn Center, where she remains fighting for her life.

“My heart goes out to them and I will always keep them in my prayers because I try to look after my neighbors here,” Jackson son.

The house fire caused about $160,000 worth of damage. AFD and APD are investigating together, trying to find out what caused that fire.